AR-based automatic pipeline planning coordination for on-site mechanical, electrical and plumbing system conflict resolution

Abstract

Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing (MEP) system conflicts are complicated problems given the involved multidisciplinary nature and constraint-bearing coordination. Although Building Information Modeling (BIM) shows benefit to resolving the conflicts before construction, the on-site pipeline inspection and further adjustment are inevitably necessary due to practical issues caused by deviations with plans. Given this, the research aims at developing an on-site pipeline inspection and automatic coordination approach by using Augmented Reality (AR) and a grid-based path-planning algorithm. The approach allows the site practitioners to compare the newly added pipe layout plan with the existing pipelines and re-plan the pipe layout where encountered conflicts, further obtaining a solution without clashes. The method considers MEP system constraints in practice and searches conflict-free pipe layout plans in near real-time. Furthermore, the path coordination process also considers MEP design criteria, including its function, construction, and maintenance. The planned pipe layout is displayed through AR to link the information from the virtual model to the real world. The performance tests are conducted in virtual scenarios with different grid cell sizes and priorities of pipes to evaluate the planning results. The test results show that under room and aisle space scenarios, the implemented approach can obtain path solutions with approximately 10 s, and most of them comply with the pre-defined MEP design requirements. Through this study, automatic pipe planning with constraints is proved to be feasible to provide an effective on-site conflict resolution approach to improve the MEP construction process and future maintenance.